THE mayor of a Jewish suburb of Nazareth kicked up a controversy after refusing to allow Christmas trees to be placed in town squares.
Nazareth Illit (Upper Nazareth) is adjacent to Nazareth where Jesus spent much of his life on the earth. The suburb is predominantly Jewish though it also has a sizable Arab Christian minority.
The request of the Arabs to put Christmas trees in the squares in the Arab quarter of Nazareth Illit is provocative, Mayor Shimon Gapso is quoted as telling AFP.
“Nazareth Illit is a Jewish city and it will not happen – not this year and not next year, so long as I am a mayor,” he said. “Nazareth is right next door and they can do whatever they want there.”
Predictably, his decision has angered the town’s Arab and Christian minority who accused Gapso of racism.
According to locals, there are 10,000 Arabs, most of them Christians, besides a large community of Russian immigrants in Nazareth Illit.
Christmas festivities in the Holy Land focus on the West Bank town of Bethlehem, where Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus in a manger. There are also events in Nazareth where Jesus grew up with his mother Mary and her husband Joseph.
